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Center Innovation Fund: MSFC CIF

In-Situ Production of Cementitious Material from Martian Resources - FY18

Project Introduction

Production of cementitious materials from Martian regolith has not been demonstrated. Production of cements on Earth is energy-intensive and emits greenhouse gases. Ionic liquids will be used in this effort. They do not require much heat, electrolytic hydrolysis requires low voltage, and carbonates are not necessary. Expected spin-off to terrestrial cement manufacturing.
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Anticipated Benefits

Additive construction of infrastructure elements on planetary surfaces; such as habitats, roads, garages, and berms; will require a lot of material. Ideally, the construction material will be mined from the planetary surface, and not brought from Earth. The work proposed here involves fabrication of a binder material from available planetary resources that, when combined with regolith, will provide a construction material that is compatible with additive construction technologies
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